Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Craig Krieswetter struck a sparkling 63 as England were crowned Twenty20 world champions after crushing Australia by seven wickets in the summit clash to win their maiden ICC tournament title.
Krieswetter made the much vaunted Australian bowling attack look like pedestrian with an explosive 49-ball innings which was studded with seven fours and two sixes as England chased down the target of 148 with three overs to spare in the grand finale at the Kensington Oval.
He was given able support by Kevin Pietersen who made a valuable 31-ball 47 which had four boundaries and a six in it. The awesome pair brought the hitherto mighty Australians to their knees by stitching 111 runs from just 68 balls for the second wicket to set up the win for England.
Earlier,England produced a clinical bowling performance to restrict Australia to 147 for six,made possible mainly due to David Hussey’s 54-ball 59,after Paul Collingwood inserted their Ashes rivals after winning the toss.
By beating Australia in the final today,England won their first ICC event title after finishing runners-up in three 50-over World Cups — in 1979,1987 and 1992 and Champions Trophy at home in 2004.
Australia,the reigning 50-over world champions,failed to win the only trophy that have eluded them after making to the final of the showpiece event of the slam-bang format in its third edition in the Caribbean.
England made a cautious start in their run chase scoring just three from the opening over bowled by Dirk Nannes but they lost opener Michael Lumb (2) in second over,holing out to David Hussey as the batsman failed to keep down a rising Shuan Tait delivery.
Nannes,Tait and Mitchell Johnson generated good pace with deliveries clocking above 150 kph on quite a few occasions but Kieswetter and Pietersen played safe by shunning big shots though at the same time scoring above the asking rate. The duo later treated the pace trio with disdain once they smell victory.
